I would never purchase an eReader for leisure reading, but I am very interested in using an eReader to organize my professional reading of PDF documents, textbooks and web content. I am not interested in wireless because I am concerned about privacy. I would enjoy the features of enlarging font, underlining and storing notes.

You’re going to have a hard time getting to web content without wifi. You can always turn the wifi off when you’re not using it, keeping the connectivity while ‘closing the curtains’ so to speak when you don’t want to be online.

google ‘e reader comparison’ and there are whole websites out there devoted to listing the different ones available and what they can/can’t do. I would suggest, in your case, going for one that supports the most variety of formats (in other words, the kindle is relatively useless for your needs since it focuses mainly on propriatary formats and people purchasing stuff through their store)

Also look for one with a removable SD card. It can expand your memory capacity (up to 32 gig) and – as long as your IT dept hasn’t disabled the ability to read/write on memory cards – give you a way to get info onto it without having to sync it to a work computer. Theoretically you can also use SD cards to distribute content (not always the cheapest way but a way that it would work)

Some may also allow you to plug in a flash drive and get content that way, but I’ve never researched it.

I found an eReader that may work for me and my constituents. It is ipapyrus iLibri Pro – “a 6-inch ebook reader aimed at value-seeking customer. It features a high-quality 6-inch e-ink screen powered by fast and reliable Samsung 2240, 400Mhz processor and boasts up to 10K pageflips battery life (which is also user-servicable and removable). Books can be uploaded via USB cable or by SD card which is supported until 16Gb. OEM packaging is available upon request.”

I am negotiating to purchase 63 with 1,000 eBooks downloaded from public domain for the Oregon State Correctional prisons(approx. $100 each). Inmates cannot have any wireless access

(Isn’t anyone concerned about privacy of downloading everything you read?)

I don’t think your privacy is any different than if you used a loyalty card. You get the card, either for free or an annual fee, they give you a discount and ‘members only offers’, they get a database of you, whatever personal info you gave them, and what and how you read. A database I am sure is used for internal and possibly external research. even if they don’t share ‘personally identifiable info’ I’m sure that publishers, etc, can get a list of gender, age, income and race and what they read. (depending on what’s given of course)

E-book is really no different. You have an account so there’s a database of what you read, how often, etc. If Casey Anthony had had a Barnes and Noble card and purchased a book about chloroform and they found it on the shelf, they’d have been able to track it down to a book store and a loyalty card or credit card and it would have been only a court order away.

I think my bigger concern about electronic content is the fact that companies can change their DRM at any point in time and, theoretically, ‘burn the book’, in removing it from your device. There was a case along these lines when an e-book company put out a book that they later found should not have been in e-format. Instead of communicating with customers, they just had their sync program remove it from their devices, without them even knowing what had happened until it was gone. Yes, they got a refund, but it was still an example of just how little control you can have over your digital files.

The one misnomer about ‘buying’ e-books. You don’t own them. You are paying money for a long term ‘rent’ of that file. You’re paying money for the right to have limitless access to the file for an undetermined amount of time. And the copyright holders can change their terms at any point in time.